Sticky Toffee (Pudding) goodness!

Friday was showing promise for a great weekend. On my lunch hour I saw a beautiful rainbow and I couldn't wait for the weekend to start!

After spending the Saturday shopping, then having dinner in London and watching the Jersey Boys (which was great by the way!), we decided that we were going to stay in on Sunday to take it easy.

But with almost no food left after the week, we decided to attempt a short journey to Waitrose for a spot of shopping. No gloves, a summer scarf, black leggings, a sweater and a thin jacket....cycling has never been a worse idea. We got back slightly frozen but a nice cup of tea warmed us up.

I fancied making something this weekend which had warmth and a slightly different flavour than vanilla or chocolate. I decided to make sticky toffee pudding, it's an old English favourite pudding of mine but all too often it's dry when you order them in pubs. Even when it's drenched in toffee sauce!
I searched the web and I decided to go for a straight forward recipe from the BBC. I halved the recipe in order to stop myself from being greedy...
Dates is something we ate often when I was still at home, so this pudding also brings back childhood memories.

Ingredients
100g dried dates, stoned
125ml black tea (not too strong, I used Lady Grey)
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
42.5g unsalted butter , softened
87.5g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice
87.5g golden caster sugar
1 eggs , beaten
The zest of half an orange (my addition, make it a whole orange if you are not halving this recipe)
30g of chopped walnuts (my addition, make it 60g if you are not halving this recipe)

Toffee sauce
100g light muscovado sugar
100g unsalted butter
142ml carton double cream

I used little loaf cases for this recipe but a brownie tin is what the recipe calls for.

1.Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Put the dates and tea in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook for 3-4 minutes to soften the dates. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

2. Beat the butter and caster sugar together with electric beaters until pale and creamy, then beat in the egg, flour and mixed spice. Fold in the date mixture and pour into a buttered ovenproof dish or brownie tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is just firm to touch.

3. Meanwhile, make the sauce by putting the sugar, butter and cream in a pan over a low heat and simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Cook until the sauce is a lovely toffee colour.

My boyfriend's brother and his fiance bought me these cute cases with different patterns.
Finally got the chance to put them to use! Thanks guys, x!



I served them up with the homemade toffee sauce and runny cream. They were delicious and very moreish! We put the rest into the freezer to avoid late night snacking!


In Sweden it was Alla Helgons Dag on Saturday, as my sister kindly reminded me, and she also sent me a picture of her lovely "fika" bord. I am very impressed by the pumpkin carving action!

Prinsess tårta comes in all shapes and forms, that's
how much we Swedes like it!



Hope you have lovely week! Ciao! x

 

 

Happy Halloween!

I'm not normally too involved with Halloween, it was not as big when I was little as it is now in Sweden. In Sweden we had something different which was during Easter, we called it påskkärringar and we dressed up as little witches (cute ones though, not evil). We went from house to house giving out drawings we have made in exchange for sweets. More of that and those traditions when we come to Easter.

So anyway, I wanted to come home from work and make something Halloween inspired but oooh...a day which started as glorious as the below.....

Sunny with dark rain clouds, spooky....

 

ended with unfortunate delays at Waterloo, meaning I got home later and ready for bed. I had such plans too, I wanted to make chocolate cupcakes with pumpkin puree I had bought especially. However I turned to my trusty box of cake mixture from Sweden, the one my mother kindly packed into my brother's tiny bag when he came to London a couple of weeks ago.

I never use cake mixes but it never hurts to have a box in your cake cupboard!

 

The chocolate cake mix only required water (which I exchanged for milk) and 50g of melted butter. It went into the oven for 20 minutes.

 

I was determined to make them as Halloweenie as possible so I made some cream cheese frosting which I coloured orange (not much effort but I am so tired).

 

I used Hummingbird Bakery's recipe for the cream cheese frosting (I can eat it on it's own....almost!):

 

125g cream cheese

50g butter (softened)

300g icing sugar (sifted)

 

I added 1tsp of vanilla extract and add colour to personal preference.

 

Mix the butter and icing sugar together in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment. Once incorporated, add the cold cream cheese. Mix/ beat well until it's smooth and fluffy.

Pipe as desired.

 

 

 

The chocolate mix tasted surprisingly nice and I will definitely pick some up on my next trip home.

 

Hope you have a spooky wookie Halloween! x









Swedish goodie bag and bullar!

Last week my brother was here and we went to watch Cirque de Soleil's Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour. It was a great show, with a mixture of acrobatic tricks and dancing. It made me remember how amazing Michael Jackson was an artist. Realising my brother was about to come to London, I took the chance to order my favourite Swedish food/ingredients.

Bilar (foamy like sweets), mandelmassa (almond paste), pärlsocker, vanilla socker, marsan sås (custard), choklad pudding mix and a box of choklad tårta mix! Yum!

The week started on a foggy note and I went into Paul's to "admire" the cakes in order to comfort myself because it was so early in the morning. I was tempted to buy a Palmier but as I looked at it, it gave me an idea.....

It was a very misty morning indeed!

 

I have been meaning to make kanelbullar for a while now, partly because I have been craving some and also it's a good thing to keep in the freezer when you want a quick cake fix.

 

The recipe for Kanelbullar is pretty straight forward, the recipe has been on the back of the main Swedish flour (Kungsörnen Vetemjöl) pack for years and years. And this is where I got my recipe from;

150g butter
500ml milk
50g fresh yeast or 25g of dried ( big thanks to my local bakery for giving me the fresh yeast, x)
100ml sugar or 150ml depending on how sweet you like it
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cardamom (can be omitted but it's very Swedish to use)
850 g plain flour

 

1 egg (for the egg wash)

 

1. Melt the butter and milk, make sure it's no warmer than 37 degrees, so "finger warm"

2. If you are using fresh yeast, crumble it into a separate (very large bowl, you can tell by the amount of flour how big the bowl needs to be). Add a bit of the liquid to the yeast and after a couple of minutes pour it all in. I normally add the cardamom here as well.

3. Once the yeast has dissolved, add the sugar and salt and then fold the flour in (keep about 100g for the kneading)

4. I kneaded the dough by hand because it was far too much to put into the KitchenAid. It took be me 10 minutes of decent kneading to get a nice dough. 

5. Put the dough back into a bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes

6. Once the 30 minutes are over, cut the dough into half or keep it as one and roll out into rectangular shape/s.

 

For the filling, you have two options;

Cinnamon butter or Almond paste butter (then it's not really called cinnamon buns...)

 

With the cinnamon butter;

100g sugar ( I used golden caster sugar)

2 tbsp cinnamon

100g softened butter 

Mix it really well, you can even pulse it in a mixer but make sure it's spreadable.

Spread it generously on the rolled out dough and roll it up.

 

With almond paste butter;

100g the almond paste (mandelmassa)

100g softened butter

Mix it really well until spreadable

Spread it generously on the rolled out dough before rolling it up.

With both of these fillings you can adjust it to your taste, more or less butter, cinnamon, almond etc,

 

Once you have spread your filling, you would normally roll the dough up, very much like a roulade and then cut it up in whatever size buns you like.

 

After my encounter with the Palmiers I wanted to try something different and rolled two opposite sides up until they met in the middle. This created a heart shaped bun(!?) :0)

 7. You can proof the dough after you have filled them for another 40 minutes. I baked mine straight after (because I wanted to eat them sooner :0) and skipped the proofing. They turned out very nice anyway but do proof them if you have the patience.

8. Gently brush egg wash on them before going into the oven and spread some pärlsocker (very Swedish). If you aren't near any Swedish shops in order to purchase pärlsocker, you can use almond flakes which would go nicely with the almond paste version.

 

This recipe yields different amounts depending on what shapes you with. But if it's normal "bullar" (buns), it should make about 40 of them.

They looked a bit like owls to me....

These are what bullar normally look like!

Mine were the size of a small bun so they only took 8-10 minutes. I would test one and keep it in for longer if needed. Max 15 minutes, I would say depending on size.

The heart shaped once came out beautifully and the little ones in the cases as well but I didn't capture them on camera unfortunately.

 

We brought these up to my boyfriend's parents, to enjoy over the weekend....but first I had to test try one or two whilst hot with some milk.

 

 I much prefer these to any Chelsea, sticky or iced buns. It's the perfect fika bulle!

 

Ciao! x

 

 

 

A tarty pie...

I love this time of the year, you can spend all the time you want indoors without feeling like you are not taking advantage of a "sunny" day (as sunny as they get London...). You don't have to think about whether you have a tan or that you need to wear a skirt/ dress without tights. Well maybe that's just me. It's the season of comfort, I love the feeling and comfort of knowing that winter and Christmas are around the corner but not here just yet.

So to celebrate autumn or fall as they say in the US, I decided to make mini pies (in tart pans...). Without a shadow of a doubt, I associate pies with America. I have also been reading US wedding posts and it seems to have been the rage at weddings too. It's a great idea, I would gladly have pie over stiff fruit cake any day. We love a good blueberry pie in Sweden too, even if it's not freshly made, especially on cold winter nights and we have quite a few of those!

I have lost count of how many times I have had Frödinge paj!

On with the post...

I used Mary Berry's pastry recipe;
175g plain flour
50g butter (cold)
50g vegetable shortening, I used Trex.
2 tbsp of water

Rub the flour and butter+ shortening together to get a breadcrumb texture and then add the water. Knead the dough gently into a dough and wrap up in a clingfilm. Put it in the fridge.

I made the filling with Waitrose's frozen smoothie berry mix. I drained the berries and added a tbsp of cornflour. The bag will give you quite a lot of filling and you can make more then the four mini tart tins I did. I wanted them to be filled to the brim! Add sugar to your taste, I put in 4 tbsp of golden caster sugar and mixed.

The mixture doesn't look very appealing but works great in pies!

I rolled out the pastry and lined four mini tart pans. I brushed blackcurrant curd at the bottom of each tart and filled them with the berries. I cut the lids out with a tart pan and used a flower cutter to make the pattern.

I brushed them with just milk because I didn't want to waste an egg...silly I know.

As you can see; filling these to the brim has a downside too, we had some spillage issues.
I have learnt for next time :0)

I served them on blue and red plates as a homage to the American pie, though these were probably far away from the typical pie. They were delicious and warmed us right up after a walk about in the rain!

My younger brother was here this weekend and generously brought a bag of Swedish goodies, more of that in the next post!

Hope you have a great week!

Ciao! x

Luxury ingredient!

There are times when you are lucky enough to get your hands on something amazing and I have to thank my grandad for my luck.

He managed to send over two, yes two, sachets of saffron!!

It's the gold of the culinary world!

I have had them since July when I forced my dad to come and visit us for a week. And as the winter is on it's way, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to make some ice cream......no?
But I am so glad I made this ice cream despite the cold weather, the flavours were delicious and I wanted to finish the whole tub!

This is an adapted recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:

200ml whole milk
A pinch of saffron
3 yolks
60g golden caster sugar (or refinded caster sugar)
200ml double cream
1-2 tbsp of runny honey ( I used Waitrose Honey Orange Blossom, it has a lovely scent to it)

A small handful of crushed pistachios (my addition)

Put the milk and saffron in a saucepan and heat, stirring a few times. Wait until bubbles appear on the sides and set aside to infuse for 20 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl until pale and creamy.
Add the milk into the egg mix and place the bowl over a bain marie, stir until the custard coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from the heat, stir in the honey and cream, cover the surface with clingfilm or greaseproof paper to prevent a skin forming, and leave to cool.
Pass the custard through a fine sieve and pour it into your ice cream machine, using the machine's instructions when doing so. Once done, freeze for at least a couple of hours.
Remove from the freezer about 15 minutes before serving.

I decided to have a middle eastern theme to the treat, having the cold ice cream followed by a nice warm chai.

Heating and ice cream don't go well!

 The colour of the ice cream was just gorgeous, when I was looking for the right recipe one of them actually suggested to use colouring. That would have ruined everything if you ask me. Who would use saffron with artificial colouring!

And as my boyfriend pointed out, where are the spoons?!
Whoops!

I can't wait to make this for my own and my boyfriend's parents. I think they will both enjoy it!






When (if perhaps) the British summer comes around again, I will be revisiting this recipe without a doubt! I'm just glad I have some left in freezer which I can scoop into sooner!

Ciao! x

p.s Don't forget the final of GBBO tomorrow!!

The end of the glorious chocolate week!

The weekend has come to an end, which means tomorrow is Monday :0( After Friday's delay disaster at Waterloo, I am dreading the commute even more. But such is life.

The week of chocolate came to end and I am honestly happy to see the back of it......until later on next week probably! And then I will have some again.

I made some Kärleksmums which translated means Love(kärlek)yum(mums), Loveyum! Anyway I prefer Kärleksmums. They are delicious but you do have to like coffee as there is some in the icing. My mum used to make these all the time, it was one of her go to recipes for fika when we had guests. Fika is a word which doesn't exist in the English language, it translate to cake and coffee time. When you say fika in Sweden people will drop what they are doing to join you.

Kärleksmums recipe from Arlas kök;
Preheat the oven to 150c in a fan oven, 175c non fan.

150 g butter
150ml milk, I used semi skimmed
3 eggs
300ml sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
75ml cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
400ml plain flour

Icing
75g Butter
75ml Coffee
50ml cocoa
1 tsp vanilla extract
400g icing sugar

Garnish
Desiccated coconut

Grease and line, with grease proof paper, a long brownie type tin, preferably 30x40cm.

Melt the butter, pour in the milk and let it cool.
Whip the eggs and sugar until fluffy and pale, add the vanilla extract, cacao, baking powder and flour through a sieve. Add the butter and milk mixture.
Mix it all together until the batter is smooth and even. Pour it into the tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Check with toothpick before removing from the oven. Set it aside to cool.

Icing:
Melt the butter then add the coffee, cacao, vanilla extract and icing sugar. Mix it until everything has been incorporated properly.
Once the cake has cooled a bit, pour over the icing and finish it off with desiccated coconut.

 

I know the recipe is in millilitres and I am sorry but if you have an electronic scale, this shouldn't be a problem. In Sweden we measure things in dl, decilitre, and I had a hard time finding conversion websites but I turned them into ml in case it would be easier.

The weekend started with a test recipe for profiteroles, after the GBBO I was inspired to make choux pastry. I wanted to make chocolate profiteroles, the results were OK.

 



I like how a few ingredients like these can create something so tasty like profiteroles and so quickly!

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible
Preheat the oven to 200c fan oven

50g Butter, diced
150 ml water
65 g plain flour, sieved 
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp of cocoa powder, sieved.

400-450ml of whipping cream, this really depends on how much you want to fill the buns and what size you make them.

Melt the butter and water in a saucepan over low heat, bring to boil until the butter has melted.
Remove from the heat and add the flour and cocoa, beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until it becomes a softball and comes away from the sides of the pan. Gradually add the eggs until the mixture goes glossy.

Spoon the mixture into a pipping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pip on a tray lined with nonstick baking paper.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, take them out to pierce the bottom of the buns and return for another 3-4 minutes. My buns were not done after 25 minutes so I left them in for about 30 minutes and pierced them. Then they returned for another 5 minutes with the oven turned off but still hot.

Once cooled, pipe the whipped cream into the holes created.

The little chocolate ball heavens

Well I am all chocolate-d out! Have a lovely week, ciao! x

The week of chocolate continues

Midst the chocolate mania, it dawned on me that I had miss Kanelbullens Dag on the 4th of October, I got a bit sad. I try to remember the Swedish things which I still dearly love and kanelbullar is definitely one of them! I have promised myself to make a batch this weekend. They are perfect for the winter time when you get in from a long day and it's cold outside, you curl up with some tea and a warm kanelbulle! They freeze brilliantly too.

But still it's chocolate week and armed with my extortionate tin of match I decided to make a batch of macaroons with the green tea and use Green and Black's 70% cacao to make a dark chocolate ganache.

I swapped my usual Delicious Magazine recipe and used The Pink Whisk's one. But I decided to make a change to it and make it a Swiss meringue to see if it would be more stable.

Preheat the oven to 140c, organise your piping bag and the baking sheets.

110g egg whites (I also used Two Chicks because it saves on wasting yolks!)
75g caster sugar
125g ground almonds
175g icing sugar
1 tsp of green tea match powder

I used a bain marie to beat the egg whites with the sugar. You beat them until the sugar has fully dissolved, you can check this by rubbing the mixture between your fingers. Once done, pour it into another bowl or your standing mixer, beat it until the mixture has cooled and is stiff.

You can pulse the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor to make sure they are as fine as possible before folding it in. I skipped this part...oops. If you want smoother macs then definitely do this part.

Gently fold the icing sugar and ground almonds in with the meringue, I do this in three stages and make sure you check the consistency now and again to prevent the mixture to become too runny.
Once you are happy with the mixture, fill a piping bag with a round nozzle, ensure your baking sheet is stuck to your baking tray with some mixture and pipe circles. Then bang the baking tray on your worktop to knock the air out and let them sit for 15 minutes to form a skin. The recipe calls for 30 minutes but I normally only do 15 minutes.

Once in the oven, leave them for circa 13 minutes. My oven is ghastly so the feet came out a bit burnt unfortunately. I brushed some gold dust on mine once they cooled.

I made the ganache by mixing 140ml of heated double cream (what I had left) with 100g of G&B's dark chocolate and one tablespoon of golden sugar. Once cooled I piped it to sandwich the macaroons.

They were pretty awesome and beautiful looking, perfect accompaniment for the GBBO. I was sad to see Danny go, we thought John should have gone, last week even!

Hope you are having chocolate galore-y week as well:0)

 

Ciao! x